GUWAHATI, Feb 6 - A two-day State meet of Aryabhatta Science Centre was held in the Regional Science Centre (RSC) Guwahati�s Khanapara premises here recently, said a delayed press statement.
The programme was inaugurated Minister of Science and Technology Keshab Mahanta and attended by Dr JN Goswami, former Director of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad; Hemen Das, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology; Dr AK Misra, Director of Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC); and Dr RK Barman, Head of Science & Technology Division of ASTEC; along with other officials of ASTEC, selected students from all the districts of Assam, and teachers, block coordinators and district coordinators of Aryabhatta Science Centres.
The inaugural session was followed by the inauguration of the exhibition stalls by Dr Goswami in presence of the Minister of Science and Technology.
This was followed by a scientist-student interaction programme where students from different regions of the State interacted with Dr Goswami, the man behind Chandrayaan-I mission.
Mahanta also held an interaction with the district coordinators of Aryabhatta Science Centres and discussed ways of strengthening the activities of the centres.
Science-based extempore speech competition, poster drawing competition and model making competition was also held during the first day of the event. The activities of the concluding day started with a lengthy discussion regarding the activities of Aryabhatta Science Centres.
Dr Barman and Biman Chandra Barua, Scientific Officer of ASTEC, along with a team of young scientists of ASTEC reviewed the annual activities of the Aryabhatta Science Centre and the coordinators also spoke about the achievements and performance of the centres.
There were also sessions on robotics activities by Romendra Medhi, Senior Education Officer of RSC Guwahati.
A demonstration of Mobile Science Laboratory and working of telescope by the science and mathematics facilitators of schools to expose the students to a broader hands-on experience was also conducted.
The event concluded with a valedictory function which was addressed by S Abbasi, Additional Chief Secretary (Department of Science and Technology); Dr Misra, Dr Barman, and Basudev Mandal, Project Coordinator of RSC Guwahati.
The programme was followed with the distribution of prizes to the participants in the different categories.